SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART SIX: THRASHBOTTOM TAKES ACTION TO PROTECT HIS CAREER

Faceache story arch No. 6 can be found in BUSTER issues cover-dated 25 November and 2 December, 1978, so it is almost exactly 40 years old today. Faceache doesn’t get to do much scrunging in this story, and it goes like this:

Late at night Faceache is practicing some leg-and-foot scrunges in the school grounds… 

Mr. Snipe discovers monstrous footprints in the morning and devises a plan of dispensing with the mysterious brute. He puts Faceache in charge of shooting the monster down when it falls into the old school well and shoots up on the coiled spring that Mr. Snipe has installed at the bottom. The Teach pompously shares his plan with the Headmaster:

Anxious that Mr. Snipe’s ambition might be to get him fired and steal his job, Albert Thrashbottom gets filled with hate and resentment...

On guard out in the school grounds, Faceache hears something inhuman approaching…

Headmaster is determined to nab the fiend first and steal Mr. Snipe’s glory. Faceache tries to warn the fool of the danger but Headmaster ignores the kid and walks straight into the trap. Upon seeing something zoom out of the well, Mr. Snipe commands Faceache’s to shoot it, with predictable consequences:

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s. 

Remember that all buyers who order their books by the end of 2018 will receive free prints of Ken’s original Frankie Stein artwork – 2 prints (one complete episode) per book, or 4 prints (2 complete episodes) per two-volume set.

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART FIVE: INITIATIVE TEST

The Flying Floogle of Frogmorton

Faceache goes on a scrunging spree in this next two-part story printed in BUSTER issues cover-dated 7th and 14th October 1978.

Mr. Snipe tells his pupils that they will have to take an initiative test:

Faceache decides to scrunge his way to Boggartsville. Police officers take a series of phone call reports from terrified villagers about fiends and unearthly atrocities as Faceache tries to reach his destination scrunged into the Fangy-Faced Freak from Frodham, then the Speedy-Swimming Frumpton Froggiefish and then the Flying Floogle of Frogmorton:

Terrified, police Sergeant telephones the nearest army bases…

The Army take action, believing Faceache is an invading alien from outer space…

Back at Belmonte school, Faceache chases Mr. Snipe for arranging the “rousing reception” at Boggartsville…

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s. 

Remember that all buyers who order their books by the end of 2018 will receive free prints of Ken’s original Frankie Stein artwork – 2 prints (one complete episode) per book, or 4 prints (2 complete episodes) per two-volume set.

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART FOUR: PIED PIPER

Faceache story arch No. 4 can be found in BUSTER issues for 9 and 16 September 1978. The story is drawn and written by Ken Reid.

Sanitary inspector is coming to inspect the premises and the school cellar is infested with mice. Faceache volunteers to get rid of them. He scrunges into Pied Piper, lures the mice to the moor and traps them inside a cave. 

Faceache heads back to school still playing his tune that attracts attention of a plague of frogs that follows him to Belmonte school.

Faceache dances his way to Belmonte school unaware that he is luring a colony of frogs that are following his heavenly tune. Faceache gets an uncontrollable urge to follow the echo of his own tune and falls into the river... 

Frogs overhear him say that he has ridden Belmonte cellar of mice and rush to occupy the vacant damp cellar that is just the place for them to hibernate in. Sanitary inspector comes to inspect the premises. He says he can tolerate mice but can’t stand horrid slimy frogs. He quickly discovers that the cellar is full of the croaking creatures. Faceache scrunges into a mouse-faced kid in hope that the sanitary inspector who is fond of mice will protect him from the enraged Headmaster.

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.

FACEACHE HALLOWEEN!

With Halloween fast approaching, I will take a short break from Faceache story arches, and show two complete one-page sets of the feature – the only ones mentioning Halloween over the long run of the strip. 

We all know Ken was fond of creepy things, and his son Antony recalls that the Reid household used to celebrate Hallowe’en with gusto long before it became what it is today (you can read all about it in Antony’s intro to Vol. One of THE POWER PACK OF KEN REID)…

The first Halloween story can be found in BUSTER cover-dated 30 October 1976 - the issue that nearly marked the end of Faceache because BUSTER + MONSTER FUN COMIC merger took place a week later and the ‘lad with a bendable bonce’ was replaced by Martha’s Monster Make-Up. Luckily, he returned to the pages of the combined comic 15 weeks later thanks to popular demand.

The second Halloween tale of Faceache can be found in BUSTER issue of 31 October 1981. The two stories were drawn a few years apart, and the second one shows signs of the artist growing a bit tired. Ken wrote scripts for both episodes (he stopped writing his Faceache stories in the beginning of February 1982 when BUSTER absorbed JACKPOT).

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd